Dev increases and balance in franchise mode

[Shosum13]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mattanite

We are seeing this begin in the SMLE. I had zero breakouts in season 1 and have had 1 superstar in season 2 which cost me a win as I had to change my playstyle to suit the goal. What we're seeing is an arms race amongst the playoff teams. The easiest way to make a superbowl is to have the most superstars as the abilities break the game, so the top players are doing everything they can to make Probowl style rosters (seriously, playing the Probowl is halilarious in an online league as its just pg13 Blitz the League). In the meantime the newer rookie coaches are not getting the abilities and blowout games are more frequent with a widening gap between the top teams and the bottom teams. It's not good for longevity when new players can't see improvement when their veteran opponents get better with each matchup. We've also handed out more player and coach bans in a season than ever before because of guys cheesing and padding beyond the limit of the rules. We had such a back log of twitch game reviews it's gotten ridiculous for voluntary commissioners. I will be pushing for abilities off in the SMLE for madden 21 if its implimented in such an arcade manner again. Sent from my H3113 using Operation Sports mobile app

The worse part is there’s nothing you can really do at this point for Madden 20 because to put rules in place now would only punish the owners that haven’t gotten as many breakouts yet but still might end up seeing some. It sucks because in this league I have the Eagles so I’m already handicapped by their cap situation since they didn’t give us the proper tools to manage these more realistic contracts. In year one I tore down the defense to rebuild it because of the cap, the only starters I retained were Fletcher Cox, Ronald Darby, Avonte Maddox, Derek Barnett, and Brandon Graham. Between trades and cuts I lost my top 4 safeties, my entire starting LB core and DT Tim Jernigan then traded Alshon Jeffery, Jason Peters and Brandon Brooks on offense and still entered free agency with only $5 million in space. Now going in to the offseason in year 2 I already cut DeSean Jackson and am trying to trade Brandon Graham and Malik Jackson because I only have about $4 million in space this offseason even after cutting Jackson.

Now I’m going to be even more handicapped because some random system that generates these breakouts hasn’t blessed me with nearly as many scenarios as other teams. I finally got a superstar breakout with Miles Sanders but that was after 6 straight weeks of 100-150 yard 2-3 td performances and it took a 225 yard 4 td performance to trigger it in the 7th week. Meanwhile I watched another team get a breakout for there RB for a 4 carry 8 yard 2 td performance and WRs get breakouts for like 80 yard 1 td performances. I mean heck I’ve been trying to build up JJ Arcega-Whiteside but even after multiple weeks of 100+ yards and at least 1 td I got a breakout for Agholor of all people after only a 75 yard 1 td performance and he’s like only my 4th most targeted player on the team it just makes no sense.

It sucks because I used to play a lot of competitive lobby ball in madden and was pretty good, but in recent years have only played solo franchises until joining this league last year so my user skills have slipped a little. Our league is really competitive and the top teams have some serious stick skills but in Madden 19 I focused on building a dominant defense and by the end of 19 I was playing .500 ball the last couple of seasons and only a few offensive mistakes from being a playoff team as my user skills started coming back. So I had high hopes for this madden in at least competing for the playoffs starting with a team that has a few more pieces in place but between the screwed up cap without the proper tools to manage it, and the way breakout scenarios and dev increases and xp are handled it feels hopeless. It sucks because the NFL is a league built on parody and meant for teams to make quick turnarounds, but in madden the way they handle everything the rich just continue to get richer and it makes it next to impossible for middle of the road users to improve.

[TheGentlemanGhost]

I did not trust EA with this Abilities idea as soon as I started reading about them. I haven’t played more than a few games in a franchise but there were definitely some gameplay benefits in turning them off. I was surprised to see how crazy the pass rush can still be but that seems to be an issue with blocking and the new pass release animations.

On top of that, this newer dev system just isn’t as good as the old one. With the XP system you had to work really hard to increase things like speed and strength, this system just randomly gives it to you on the fly. It just feels like they are slowly trying to bring MUT elements into our CFM and we do not want that for the most part. I really feel like we are seeing the complete fall of any deduction to any true additions to CFM. It’s been happening for a while but I feel like we might have “peaked” with CFM in this generation and it never even supplied us with much.

[JoshC1977]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheGentlemanGhost

On top of that, this newer dev system just isn’t as good as the old one. With the XP system you had to work really hard to increase things like speed and strength, this system just randomly gives it to you on the fly. It just feels like they are slowly trying to bring MUT elements into our CFM and we do not want that for the most part. I really feel like we are seeing the complete fall of any deduction to any true additions to CFM. It’s been happening for a while but I feel like we might have “peaked” with CFM in this generation and it never even supplied us with much.

As a quick disclaimer: I am not speaking to HOW XP is gained - because that hasn't fundamentally changed in a while...but just to what happens AFTER you get the XP and are ready to upgrade. HOW XP is gained is a separate topic altogether.

The old system where you had to manually increase individual ratings was awful IMO. You could just micro-manage whatever you wanted in a incredibly granular way - which makes no sense from a "sim" perspective.

Imagine a coach going to a receiver and saying, "I want you to work on your ability to run short routes". He comes back and says, "OK, I worked on that coach". REALLY? That's the ONLY thing that improved while he was working on that? Think about it, there are a number of skills/physical abilities that play vital roles into running short routes (his quickness, agility (i.e. footwork), ability to beat the press, awareness in recognizing what the defender is doing, etc.). Absolutely none of those other skills were improved? Sorry, but that makes no sense to me; improvement doesn't happen in a vacuum.

In the new paradigm, the coach says, "I want you to work on your route running". He does....but as people improve in doing things in different ways, HOW that aspect of his game improves may vary from other players on the roster. People have different natural abilities and different capacities for learning which may vary based on the activity, the random 'dice roll' for progression helps to replicate that natural inherent variance.

Core physical ability improvements (like speed, strength) do happen to a small degree in real life. One thing M20 does well is that (based on my own observations), is that younger players (who may be still physically maturing) tend to get a high percentage of the physical ability improvements. It's not so randomly haphazard that a 33 yr old WR suddenly gains a boost to his speed. In the old system, players could keep pumping up these traits ad nauseum.

One final note: the new system is a LOT more accessible. Many players (including, I'm sure, a lot of folks here on OS) never really grasped which ratings mattered. I mean, there are still people that think the BSH rating affects pass rush.

[Shosum13]

So someone did the math in our league and we now have 208 players with superstar and x factor dev with 87 of those being x factors in ONLY 2 SEASONS, it's ridiculous.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Shosum13]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshC1977

As a quick disclaimer: I am not speaking to HOW XP is gained - because that hasn't fundamentally changed in a while...but just to what happens AFTER you get the XP and are ready to upgrade. HOW XP is gained is a separate topic altogether. The old system where you had to manually increase individual ratings was awful IMO. You could just micro-manage whatever you wanted in a incredibly granular way - which makes no sense from a "sim" perspective. Imagine a coach going to a receiver and saying, "I want you to work on your ability to run short routes". He comes back and says, "OK, I worked on that coach". REALLY? That's the ONLY thing that improved while he was working on that? Think about it, there are a number of skills/physical abilities that play vital roles into running short routes (his quickness, agility (i.e. footwork), ability to beat the press, awareness in recognizing what the defender is doing, etc.). Absolutely none of those other skills were improved? Sorry, but that makes no sense to me; improvement doesn't happen in a vacuum. In the new paradigm, the coach says, "I want you to work on your route running". He does....but as people improve in doing things in different ways, HOW that aspect of his game improves may vary from other players on the roster. People have different natural abilities and different capacities for learning which may vary based on the activity, the random 'dice roll' for progression helps to replicate that natural inherent variance. Core physical ability improvements (like speed, strength) do happen to a small degree in real life. One thing M20 does well is that (based on my own observations), is that younger players (who may be still physically maturing) tend to get a high percentage of the physical ability improvements. It's not so randomly haphazard that a 33 yr old WR suddenly gains a boost to his speed. In the old system, players could keep pumping up these traits ad nauseum. One final note: the new system is a LOT more accessible. Many players (including, I'm sure, a lot of folks here on OS) never really grasped which ratings mattered. I mean, there are still people that think the BSH rating affects pass rush.

I agree with you that if they are going to stick with the current system of xp and skill points I like it way better this way improving archetypes rather than individual ratings. Personally I would rather go back to the something like old school way before the days of xp where it was random and go to a system where progression naturally happens based on age and development with the possibility of small bonuses here or there for putting up certain stats.

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[MakaveliLPC]

If the users in your league are selling out to get the upgrades, your league sucks. Unfortunately my 4 user league sucks lol and they sell all the way out to get them. I think a solution could be to make them depend on multiple games. Like at the beginning of the year you'll get a breakout scenario for a RB. 1,000 yards for the season or something. That way if people want to sell out for it they'll be putting their season At risk

[bucky60]

Stats based progression is just inherently flawed and un-sim. As long as XP exist based on stats, and development based on stats, these problems will exist.

I'm starting up Red Dead Online, where even though I don't drink alcohol, I'm a Red Dead Online MoonShiner.

[TheGentlemanGhost]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshC1977

As a quick disclaimer: I am not speaking to HOW XP is gained - because that hasn't fundamentally changed in a while...but just to what happens AFTER you get the XP and are ready to upgrade. HOW XP is gained is a separate topic altogether. The old system where you had to manually increase individual ratings was awful IMO. You could just micro-manage whatever you wanted in a incredibly granular way - which makes no sense from a "sim" perspective. Imagine a coach going to a receiver and saying, "I want you to work on your ability to run short routes". He comes back and says, "OK, I worked on that coach". REALLY? That's the ONLY thing that improved while he was working on that? Think about it, there are a number of skills/physical abilities that play vital roles into running short routes (his quickness, agility (i.e. footwork), ability to beat the press, awareness in recognizing what the defender is doing, etc.). Absolutely none of those other skills were improved? Sorry, but that makes no sense to me; improvement doesn't happen in a vacuum. In the new paradigm, the coach says, "I want you to work on your route running". He does....but as people improve in doing things in different ways, HOW that aspect of his game improves may vary from other players on the roster. People have different natural abilities and different capacities for learning which may vary based on the activity, the random 'dice roll' for progression helps to replicate that natural inherent variance. Core physical ability improvements (like speed, strength) do happen to a small degree in real life. One thing M20 does well is that (based on my own observations), is that younger players (who may be still physically maturing) tend to get a high percentage of the physical ability improvements. It's not so randomly haphazard that a 33 yr old WR suddenly gains a boost to his speed. In the old system, players could keep pumping up these traits ad nauseum. One final note: the new system is a LOT more accessible. Many players (including, I'm sure, a lot of folks here on OS) never really grasped which ratings mattered. I mean, there are still people that think the BSH rating affects pass rush.

I’m not sure which old system you’re talking about with pumping up 30+ year old players, but in the XP system you would have to start accumulating 10k - 30k XP (esp on physical attributes) with most older players. It’s not like that was easy to gain at all nor would anyone want to use that much for a 1 or attr increase, which usually left the mental attributes like awr and play recognition left to increase which felt more realistic than what the game does now.

This new system now just feels like a MUT system they brought over to CFM. You pick a box, you hope it gives you a lot of increases and it randomly picks how many attributes go up and you get a bunch of slot machine sounds lol. I honestly just tried to guess whichever one might give me the most and not what style I wanted, that just comes the way to play it after a while.

I don’t see the difference in controlling what “group” of attributes you want increased like in this new system compared to the XP system which you could take completely out of your own hands anyway if wanted. Plus like I said, you couldn’t mold everyone exactly how you saw fit because more XP was needed for certain players in certain areas than others and it got harder to build them up the older they got. You could just make any random guard at 88 run block and 73 pass block an excellent pass blocker if he ended up needing 2500 XP to go up one pt which then goes to 5000 XP once you reach 75 PB. It just didn’t work the way you’re claiming it did.